Today is National Poetry Day — and I’m reading!

Where: University Bookshop, University of Canterbury

When: Event begins, 12.30 pm

The bookshop will be announcing the result of its National Poetry Day competition, with the winners reading their work, together with guest poets Jeffrey Paparoa Holman and Ben Brown, as well as myself.

And of course there are lots of other National Poetry Day events taking place around the country — you can check them out here.

For even more poetry goodness, check out all the poems featured as part of the National Poetry Day celebration on Frankfurt Book Fair: An Aoteraoa Affair blog, here. (And scroll down: it’s a tremendous blog roll of poetry — also with my poem, The Wayfarer, featured here.

Haarth; map design by Peter Fitzpatrick

Last Saturday I posted about the magic of winter worlds in SFF, here — and one of the aspects I have always loved about Fantasy-Science Fiction (F-SF) is the door it opens into fantastic worlds. Science Fiction offers worlds such as Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s Dune and the Union/Alliance space of CJ Cherryh’s Downbelow Station, while Fantasy gives us Middle-Earth (Tolkien), Earthsea (Le Guin) and Bas-Lag (Miéville), to name only a very few. So it is perhaps not surprising that in The Wall of Night series  I have introduced my own world of Haarth.

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In the first book, The Heir of Night, much of the wider Haarth world is only alluded to. The dominant landscape  is the twilit and wind-blasted Wall of Night, a mountainous barrier range garrisoned by the alien and warlike Derai. The Derai keeps are also worlds in themselves, which open, like puzzle boxes, to other realms: the abandoned layers of the Old Keep and the Gate of Dreams—a place of forests and wreathing mist which may—or may not—only be accessed through the Old Keep’s secret heart …

Yet even on the Wall of Night there is knowledge and limited contact with the wider world of those the Derai term “outsiders”—although readers do get to visit in in more detail in the second book in the series, The Gathering of the Lost.

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The Earl of Night’s minstrel hails from the great city of “Ij the Golden, the queen of the River”—the River being a loose federation of city states. The heralds of the Guild, whom the Derai believe function in some “form of symbiosis” also hail from the River, in their case the Guild House in the city of Terebanth. Other realms lie further south, including Emer, which is famous for its armoured knights; Aralorn and Jhaine, of which little is known;  and Ishnapur, the last but still great remnant of the Old Empire. The Empire fell apart in the long-ago calamity known as the Cataclysm, but once stretched from Ishnapur in the south to Jaransor in the north—Jaransor, that line of green forbidden hills that it is whispered can drive the Derai mad …

Beyond that again there is  the Winter Country, with its hunters and shamans, where a day might be “bright-as-diamond … between blizzards, with the sky pale blue crystal and the snow stretching away forever, white and gleaming.”

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And then, of course, there’s what lies on the other side of the Wall of Night …

So where did the world of Haarth come from? Ursula Le Guin, in her book on writing titled Steering the Craft, talks about pulling ideas out of the air—and ideas do often seem to spring from the aether. Influences I am aware of, that may help shape my access to that marvellous air include:  a love of myth and legend and fairytale; “what-if” sparks from other stories and events in the real world; the resonance of music, which strongly influences atmosphere and mood; considerable and wide ranging reading of historical non fiction (for fun, you know); and experience of landscape.

As part of one post in the intermittent “influences on story” series on my blog, here, I have specifically discussed the influence of my time living in Stockholm, and winter journeys to the north of Sweden, as well as to Finland and Russia, on the Winter Country.

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Few influences on story and world building are so direct though, in my experience. I have had the vision of a twilit world and beleaguered keeps from a very early age, although the windswept crags and bitter peaks of the Wall of Night emerged from the air a long time after that. The concept of Jaransor, and land that may itself be conscious, is also one that had been “lurking” for some time before I began writing the book. Conversely, the southern kingdoms and the romance of the road that stretches “from Ij to Ishnapur” evolved as much from their introduction into the story as from any prior consideration.

And just in case you wonder whether there really is power in a name, take it from me that characteristics, backstory, and function within the tale, whether for characters or realms, can and do change, sometimes quite dramatically, when a name gets changed. It’s dangerous territory—but that is a blog post for another day. Today is about the world of Haarth—and for now, I shall leave you on its borders.

Margaret Mahy

The passing of the great Children’s and Young Adult author, Margaret Mahy, has garnered significant attention both here and overseas, for example with the tremendous contributions on Beatties Bookblog, here, and tributes in the NZ Herald and The Guardian, here — all as it should, given her stature.

And I, too, albeit in a considerably more modest way, feel it is important to mark her passing and her tremendous contribution to children’s literature.

My first Margaret Mahy as a reader was also one of her first publications: “A Lion In The Meadow.” Subsequent favourites included “The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate” and of course the Junior and YA stories respectively, The Haunting and The Changeover. 

More recently I have bought my nephews her picture books A Summery Saturday Morning, Down The Back of the Chair and Bubble Trouble.

The thing that struck me when I read them, just as it does whenever I pick up A Lion in the Meadow and The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate again, was the way in which her stories, although written for a very young audience, can still be enjoyed by adults. I think it’s because there is a timelessness to them, and defintely a joie de vivre, but perhaps most importantly of all, her stories never talk down to the reader.

When I look at her body of work, I can only think what a great taonga (prized treasure) she has left us all, not just New Zealand, but all the reading world.

Helen Heath; credit Kate MacPherson

As my Tuesday Poem feature today, I am linking to my recent Women on Air interview with poet Helen Heath, author of the poetry collection “Graft.”

Helen Heath won the inaugural ScienceTeller Poetry Award in 2011 for her poem ‘Making Tea in the Universe’ and is currently undertaking a PhD in Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington; her research explores how science is represented in poetry. Widely published in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US, Graft is Helen’s debut poetry collection, with themes that include science, family connection, and fairytales.

To listen to the interview — and hear Helen reading ‘Making Tea in the Universe’ and ‘Holding water’ — click Here.

Then either click on the ‘Play’ button, or download the MP3

In addition, you can read my “What I’m Reading” post on Graft here.

And my Tuesday Poem feature of Helen’s poem Fairytale v: O Brother, published in Graft, is here.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Rowena Cory Daniells

Shortly after winning the Gemmell Morningstar Award, fellow SFF author and Australian writer, Rowena Cory Daniells, approached me to discuss an interview, both to celebrate the award and as part of her “Fantastic Female Fantasy Authors” & “Interesting People In The Speculative Fiction World” interview series.

Of course (coughs!) I like to think that I’m both, so immediately said “yes” — and shortly thereafter Rowena sent through a great list of questions.

To see the questions — and my answers! — click Here.

But there is more!

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Because the interview was sparked by The Heir of Night winning the Gemmell Morningstar Award, I am giving away a copy of the book as part of the interview — but to be in the draw you’ll have to answer the Giveaway Question. Again, to see what it is you’ll just have to go read the interview. 😉

Even if you already have a copy of HEIR though, still feel free to comment—I’d love to hear your replies. 🙂

Friday July 27 is National Poetry Day.

And to celebrate, the University Bookshop at the University of Canterbury is having a poetry reading.

I’ll be one of the guest poets reading some of my work, along with Jeffrey Paparoa Holman and Ben Brown.

Just rock on up to UBS at 12.20 pm on Friday 27 to be in–or up–for some poetry goodness. 😉

Recently I posted my poem “North” here, and alluded to a journey into the far north of Sweden, to Arjeplog just south of the Arctic circle, which inspired it.

Again recently, I have begun reading Australian author Jo Spurrier’s debut Fantasy, Winter Be My Shield, first mentioned under “Just Arrived” here — and these two posts got me thinking about what a great tradition winter worlds are in Fantasy-SciFi.

Here are a few of my favourites:

The Narnia of CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, of course. I have think that moment when, together with Lucy Pevensie, I stepped through the back of a wardrobe and into the snowy landscape of Lantern Waste was definitely one of the most magical of my reading childhood.

As an adult, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness provided a similar defining moment, with the physical world of Winter (Gethen) absolutely dominating the cultural, sexual, and political landscape of the story.

From there, I moved on to Michael Scott Rohan’s “Winter of the World” series (the first trilogy comprises The Anvil of Ice, The Forge of the World, The Hammer of the Sun), in which the encroaching ice (think ice age) is an aware power and the Norse myth influences on the storytelling — perhaps fittingly given the world — are strong. (Just in case you’re wondering, I think this is a good thing and the series a very interesting, if at times grim, one.)

And then there’s Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale — which is more like historical urban fantasy (meets the Gangs of New York) and is rich, mythic, magic realist imbued — and where winter undoubtedly ‘colours’  the entire story.

More recently I’ve read Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic (the first of a “Cold’ trilogy) which also picks up the idea of an ice age realm where the ice influences magic — but in a world where alternate history means the Carthaginians fought the Romans to a standstill, retaining their maritime empire, and North African (Mali) magicians have emigrated (ahead of a ghoul/zombie horde) to hook up with Celtic druids, I think you’ll already be getting that the story is going very different places to Michael Scott Rohan’s ice…

Nor should stories such as Peter Hoeg’s  Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow be overlooked, if only for the wonderful descriptions of winter and snow; this is a very atmospheric book. And how could I forget Joan Vingt’s “The Snow Queen”? Short answer, I can’t—again it’s a favourite novel and one where the prolonged winter world of Tiamat, but also the imminent transition to an equally prolonged summer is essential to the story being told. Picking up on extended winter/summer worlds again, “Winter is Coming” in George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, even if it is not quite here yet — but the giant wall of ice and the Night Watch definitely set the scene from book one, A Game of Thrones.

And now I am reading the new Jo Spurrier epic, Winter Be My Shield, where winter and snow also dominate the world building.

There are also distinctive winter elements to wider worlds, such as the Winter Country in my own “The Wall of Night” series, and the north of the Finnish witches and panzer bjorn in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

The more I think about it, it seems fairly clear that winter worlds hold an enduring fascination, so now I’m thinking about why that might be… In part, I suspect it is because winter landscapes and worlds are so dramatic, stark and elemental. Physically, they challenge us — and the white on white of snow worlds is also a very strong aesthetic.

Can you think of other reasons for their enduring popularity in Fantasy-SF or literature generally?

And what are your great winter worlds that I’ve missed mentioning?

As you may know, Aotearoa-New Zealand is the guest country at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair and the Aotearoa Affair blog has been celebrating with guest posts from both Aotearoa-New Zealand and German writers.

It’s all quite a buzz and I’ve had a few guest posts featured already this year, including  here and here.

And yesterday my poem ‘The Wayfarer’ was a ‘Highlight’ on the festival blog.

‘The Wayfarer’ is the seventh poem in my “Ithaca Conversations” sequence, based around the Odysseus myths: in this case the story of how, after finally returning to Ithaca, Odysseus sets out again to seek guidance from the oracle at Dodoma—with a reference to what the oracle tells him.

You can read the poem Here.

Storm on the Wall of Night

Working on the chapter from hell, that’s what!

You know, the one where it’s all that sticky, emotional, character-layering stuff and not the fun easy-to-write action with some of Robin Hobb’s ‘strange magic’ thrown in by way of extra Fantasy goodness.

And what’s more, where the characters would have you know it’s all about them and they’re not satisfied with being coat hangers for the plot to conveniently hang off! I mean, I ask you, characters talking back and giving the author sass… How does that work?!

But finally, after what I can only describe as something resembling the week from hell, where I really felt like that chapter was giving me a severe drubbing, I was finally able to sit back—around about mid-day yesterday—and say: “Phew, Phew! Think I finally got that one whupped!

Until second draft time, of course, when naturally all prior bets will be off!

But until then…

… I guess it’s on to the next chapter, which I for one sincerely hope will go a tad easier on the author! Just sayin’…

photo credit: PJ Fitzpatrick

It has been a while since I’ve had some poetry news, but I was really pleased the other day to hear that I’ve had two poems accepted for publication in The Christchurch Press.

The poems, ‘Stepping Into Rain’ and ‘The Hours’ will be in print on August 10 and September 29 respectively. I hope that those of you who have access to The Press may read and enjoy.

Meanwhile, you can check out some of my earlier poetry publications on my website, here, and also under “Poetry” on my blog, here. (When you scroll down, if a poet’s name does not appear in the post title, then the poem will be one of mine.)